Trump's ghastly threats are far more ominous than they seem

Three examples from just the last week.

On Saturday, Donald Trump said, “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”

He called O’Donnell a “threat to humanity” and said she should remain in Ireland, where she moved in January after Trump won a second term.

O’Donnell responded on Instagram: “The president of the USA has always hated the fact that I see him for who he is — a criminal con man sexual abusing liar out to harm our nation to serve himself.”

A central feature of Trump’s second term is his poisoning of the power of the presidency for personal ends, such as wanting to get even with O’Donnell for having expressed negative views about him.

Another example: Trump is putting a 50 percent tariff on imports from Brazil, starting August 1. This isn’t because it will help the American economy or even the broader interests of the United States.

It’s because Brazil is prosecuting its far-right former president, Jair Bolsonaro, for attempting to overturn Brazil’s 2022 election and remain in office after his defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula).

After the election, Bolsonaro claimed, without credible evidence, that it had been stolen from him. Then, on January 8, 2023, he encouraged his supporters to storm and ransack government buildings in Brasilia, the nation’s capital.

Sound familiar?

Trump says the prosecution of Bolsonaro “is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a Political Opponent — Something I know much about! It happened to me, times 10.”

He calls the 50 percent tariff on all Brazilian imports starting August 1 “retaliation” for what he calls a “witch hunt” against Bolsonaro. “Brazil is doing a terrible thing on their treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro,” Trump said in a post. “He is not guilty of anything, except having fought for THE PEOPLE.”

The new tariff would take effect just before Bolsonaro is scheduled to go to trial.

But why should Americans have to pay far more for their coffee because Trump is upset about Brazil’s prosecution of Bolsonaro? It’s an abuse of Congress’s power to levy tariffs.

Trump asserts the United States runs a trade deficit with Brazil. In fact, we ran a $7.4 billion trade surplus with Brazil last year.

A third example: We learned this week that Trump is targeting for federal prosecution officials who oversaw the investigation into his 2016 campaign’s connections to Russia.

His regime is making criminal referrals to the FBI of former CIA director John O. Brennan and former FBI director James B. Comey for their roles in the Russia investigation.

The regime claims Brennan lied to Congress. Comey was tracked by the Secret Service in May after sharing a post critical of President Trump on social media.

Asked about the criminal referrals of these two, Trump said on Wednesday, “They’re very dishonest people.”

Trump isn’t likely to follow through with these three threats — taking away O’Donnell’s citizenship (a president doesn’t have the power to strip the citizenship of a U.S.-born citizen), or putting a 50 percent tariff on Brazil (which would force Americans to pay through the nose for coffee and beef), or prosecuting two high-level officials involved in investigating Trump’s connections to Russia (no federal court is going to convict Brennan and Comey of any crimes).

But the point of these threats isn’t to follow through on them. It’s to demonstrate Trump’s power to threaten.

He wants the targets of his wrath — and many others who worry they could be targeted — to feel the pressure of being targeted.

That pressure includes hate and condemnation from right-wing social media, disparagement and ridicule from Republican politicians, and the likelihood of violent threats from Trump supporters.

Ed Martin, the Trump ally tapped to oversee a “weaponization” task force in the Justice Department, has suggested that it’s fine if courts and grand juries refuse to prosecute Trump’s foes. Simply naming and shaming them is an acceptable goal.

Rubbish.

Dictators name and shame. Dictators threaten and condemn. Dictators use state media and state power and their own thugs to intimidate their foes. This doesn’t happen in the United States.

Or it didn’t.

Friends, a bit over 15 months — 476 days — remain until the 2026 midterm elections. The ballot on November 3, 2026, will contain every House seat, 35 Senate seats, and thousands more at the state and local level.

If our democracy survives that long.

• Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com